305Respondents
4Formats Evaluated
160Written replies (Q7)
94Suggestions (Q8)
124Community notes (Q9)
Top 2 winners
Frontier
avg 4.4 / 6 · median 5 · std 1.63
SLL
avg 3.83 / 6 · median 4 · std 1.69
AMS
avg 3.2 / 6 · median 3 · std 1.59
MPS
avg 3.14 / 6 · median 3 · std 1.9
Respondent profile
Q1 — How long playing Altered?
Since beginning (2024) — 68.5%
1–2 years — 22.3%
3–12 months — 7.2%
<3 months — 2.0%
Q2 — Relationship to Altered?
Mixed — 59.7%
Mostly casual — 18.4%
Mostly competitive — 18.4%
Content creator — 3.6%
Format score comparison
Frontier
SLL
AMS
MPS
Score distribution (1–6) across all formats
Detailed results
Frontier
🥇 1st Place
Avg 4.4 / 6
n = 305
A rotating, shared pool of ~5,000 uniques per faction, refreshed every 6–8 weeks.
4.4
Average
5
Median
1.63
Std Dev
57%
Scored 5–6
Score distribution (1–6)
1
25
8.2%
2
21
6.9%
3
44
14.4%
4
41
13.4%
5
65
21.3%
6
109
35.7%
Podium — top scores
🥇
109
score 6 voters
🥈
65
score 5 voters
🥉
44
score 3 voters
▶ Full score breakdown
| Score | Votes | % of total | Cumulative % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 109 | 35.7% | 35.7% |
| 5 | 65 | 21.3% | 57.0% |
| 4 | 41 | 13.4% | 70.5% |
| 3 | 44 | 14.4% | 84.9% |
| 2 | 21 | 6.9% | 91.8% |
| 1 | 25 | 8.2% | 100% |
Key highlights from Q7 written answers
"Love Frontier, makes me want to brew a new deck each rotation."
"I think the Frontier format is clearly the most exciting; it helps build hype around the rotation of unique cards and has the potential to shift the meta, which is a real strength now that the game will have little to no new content."
"Frontier, it keeps the most to the spirit of the original concepts of uniques by having such a large pool, but still gives limits that makes no digital ownership not a problem."
"Frontier. Because Altered is mostly about smart deckbuilding. This will truly test everyone's capabilities."
"Frontier. I like the puzzly nature of it."
"Frontier seems the most exciting to me because you keep the core gameplay of Altered while not having the few degenerate and unfun uniques. Plus the rotation will recreate the search of unique that was an important element of the game for me."
"Frontier, to be able to search uniques in a reasonable and balanced pool. The excitement of finding the best uniques and to be able to share these ideas."
"I'm excited about the Frontier because each 6–8 weeks, I will want to discover the new uniques pool. Perhaps a mix between Frontier and Living Legend could be great, with the benefit of aggregating players on 1 format, because the idea is similar: play with uniques while removing the broken ones."
Notable concerns & suggestions (Q8)
Maybe the pool should change every month rather than every 6–8 weeks.
Will there be an emergency ban system if a unique is too strong before rotation?
A smaller permanent pool of weaker uniques alongside the bigger rotating pool could help casual players whose decks become illegal every 2 months.
30,000 feels like a lot — could accomplish the same thing at 1,000–2,000 uniques.
Be clear about how/why specific uniques are selected for the pool (bias risk if handpicked).
SLL
🥈 2nd Place
Avg 3.83 / 6
n = 305
All uniques legal at launch (except Set 1), then tournament results progressively ban the uniques in winning decks.
3.83
Average
4
Median
1.69
Std Dev
40.3%
Scored 5–6
Score distribution (1–6)
1
35
11.5%
2
43
14.1%
3
54
17.7%
4
50
16.4%
5
52
17.0%
6
71
23.3%
Podium — top scores
🥇
71
score 6 voters
🥈
54
score 3 voters
🥉
52
score 5 voters
▶ Full score breakdown
| Score | Votes | % of total | Cumulative % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 71 | 23.3% | 23.3% |
| 5 | 52 | 17.0% | 40.3% |
| 4 | 50 | 16.4% | 56.7% |
| 3 | 54 | 17.7% | 74.4% |
| 2 | 43 | 14.1% | 88.5% |
| 1 | 35 | 11.5% | 100% |
Key highlights from Q7 written answers
"SLL, retains the best elements of the game as it was intended and removes problem cards innately."
"Simple Living Legend — Because I think a format that will auto balance based on play rate is the best way to equilibrate the game. Formats that will need manual interventions from the outside makes it way less attractive both because 1) People can stop doing it and it doesn't work anymore. 2) Will be subjective to those people."
"SLL, the fact that the best decks will turn seems really nice."
"SLL sounds exciting because I enjoy the idea of finding a 'broken' unique and being known for having a certain card banned. It also feels similar to searching the marketplace for a good unique which was a fun feeling."
"SLL, le format ressemble à celui de FAB qui fonctionne très bien."
"Living legend because its near FaB system and permit to have a fair tournament experience."
"Le SLL, car je pense qu'il y a un vrai challenge à essayer de faire ban ces propres uniques."
"SLL is engaging mainly because of the ban on set 1 uniques, which makes things easier to think about. All of the factions benefit from not using those overly strong uniques. Curious also to try MPS, mixing factions is new..."
Notable concerns & suggestions (Q8)
SLL is just continuous trimming — it will need a reset point at some stage.
Banning after a single tournament win may be too fast — prefer several wins (2–3) before exclusion.
Won't it be complicated to know which tournament counts or not? The 10% threshold may not be evolved enough.
The ban rate in SLL is far too frequent for casual/returning/new players who need time to get familiar with a meta before it changes.
Hammer out tournament schedule details — when exactly will cards be banned to start?
The LL proposal may force players to update their decks too frequently; also, strategically withholding uniques for bigger tournaments might lead to undesirable dynamics.
AMS
3rd Place
Avg 3.2 / 6
n = 305
60 character clusters legal at a time (10 per faction), rotated monthly by an algorithm based on win/play rate data.
3.2
Average
3
Median
1.59
Std Dev
22.3%
Scored 5–6
Score distribution (1–6)
1
51
16.7%
2
62
20.3%
3
71
23.3%
4
53
17.4%
5
31
10.2%
6
37
12.1%
Podium — top scores
🥇
71
score 3 voters
🥈
62
score 2 voters
🥉
53
score 4 voters
▶ Full score breakdown
| Score | Votes | % of total | Cumulative % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 37 | 12.1% | 12.1% |
| 5 | 31 | 10.2% | 22.3% |
| 4 | 53 | 17.4% | 39.7% |
| 3 | 71 | 23.3% | 63.0% |
| 2 | 62 | 20.3% | 83.3% |
| 1 | 51 | 16.7% | 100% |
Key highlights from Q7 written answers
"Autobalancing Meta Standard (AMS) looks the most principled and mathematically sound approach. With a clear way to balance clearly and sound. Without changing the game fundamentals."
"AMS looks to balance the unique problem in a constant living and changing environment, giving every card and every result the possibility of performing, being analysed, rotating eventually and coming back."
"AMS because it is self regulated, avoiding a committee and all issues going with it (like Duel Commander in Magic)."
"AMS, because it makes it less easy to create auto-win decks and has a really clever proposal for rotating uniques."
"The third one for ease of access to new players. The deckbuilding phase is more guided and more easy to approach for casual players like me. The rhythm of change seems to be good and the tiering system is a good idea."
"AMS as it seems like the perfect blend of keeping what is great about Altered alive and has a good rate of bans that aren't too frequent."
"Auto-balancing, because I like the idea of limiting clusters but allowing lots of uniques to select from."
"AMS & Frontier. I think they can allow a continuous change in the metagame, that is good because the danger is stagnation."
Notable concerns & suggestions (Q8)
The algorithm should be public-facing; it will require refinement and will not be perfect right away — benefits from a long development period.
The thresholding for judging a card as S-tier should be tested and fine-tuned accurately before launch.
The term "cluster" already has a name from Equinox: "Family". Using consistent terminology is important.
AMS algo will need MASSIVE and extensive requirements info input to be implemented on BGA — this is a significant technical concern.
Players may oscillate between top tiers — when S-rank uniques rotate out, players just move to A-rank strategies until S-ranks return.
Consider a system to also ban overly dominant commons or rares within this format.
MPS
4th Place
Avg 3.14 / 6
n = 305
Standard rules plus 15 points to splash cards from other factions; curated pool of ~129 uniques per faction, refreshed every 3 months.
3.14
Average
3
Median
1.9
Std Dev
30.5%
Scored 5–6
Score distribution (1–6)
1
98
32.1%
2
38
12.5%
3
38
12.5%
4
38
12.5%
5
40
13.1%
6
53
17.4%
Podium — top scores
🥇
98
score 1 voters
🥈
53
score 6 voters
🥉
40
score 5 voters
▶ Full score breakdown
| Score | Votes | % of total | Cumulative % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 53 | 17.4% | 17.4% |
| 5 | 40 | 13.1% | 30.5% |
| 4 | 38 | 12.5% | 43.0% |
| 3 | 38 | 12.5% | 55.4% |
| 2 | 38 | 12.5% | 67.9% |
| 1 | 98 | 32.1% | 100% |
Key highlights from Q7 written answers
"MPS is perfect for all my cross-faction dreams, and it adds SO much complexity that it would take weeks to go through all the previous sets and figure out what new possibilities there are, like Anchoring in Axiom!"
"MPS — It is finally a new deckbuilding mode that isn't singleton, NUC, or normal deckbuilding. It is thought provoking and fresh. The other 3 are just similar ways to playing before with a solution for no ownership for uniques."
"The MPS, because it will bring a lot of fresh wind and we are playing a similar system in our Local Play Store."
"MPS. I think this offers creative and unique deckbuilding opportunities, while preventing people from having to search through thousands of possible uniques."
"Multifaction because Is the most impactful on deck Building."
"MPS, it can be fun but I'm scared of the result (don't want to see another Moyo prison, small step deck or some no fun gameplay)."
"MPS and Frontier. MPS for the ability to make crossfaction deck legal, that sounds fun. Frontier as it shifts the paradigm every few weeks."
"MPS. It doesn't really solve the problem of there being so many uniques that it feels impossible to find what you want, but limiting the pool like the others do still leaves too many for me to process. The splash points are fun and something I'd actually get to see in action. SLL is a great idea but realistically, I'll never survive long enough in a tournament to see that pool shrink."
Notable concerns & suggestions (Q8)
Incorporating cards from other factions could be totally degenerate — Festival with Ordis will be super powerful, for instance.
MPS will devolve to grabbing the three best uniques with your points — needs to prevent all players from grabbing the same top three.
With 15 points, power level wise it could be quite close to running full rare lists in some classes — not great long-term.
The pool of 129 uniques per faction with a 3-month refresh rate is too slow — might end up with bad uniques for a very long period.
Mixing factions would be a huge no-no for some — the game would lose its appeal as players generate ridiculous decks that play by themselves.